Czech Republic - Digital Economy and Digital Media

Synopsis

The Czech Republic’s media market is evolving under the weight of digital TV and convergence trends, with over half the population now receiving TV services digitally. The uptake of IPTV services is growing on the back of more affordable broadband access while the cable TV market has undergone consolidation to create a major player sizeable enough to compete effectively against the telecoms incumbent.

Analogue switch-off is continuing on a regional basis in the free-to-air broadcasting market as the uptake of digital terrestrial TV improves. In March 2017 digital TV was broadcast using the DVB-T2 standard, initially from two transmitting towers. Digital satellite TV services are widely available from a number of competing platforms. This report profiles the digital media market in the Czech Republic, offering an overview of key players and a variety of statistics related to IPTV, VoD and DTTV developments.

Key developments:

DVB-T2 broadcasting launched from two transmitters; O2 CR secures DTT licence to operate its O2 TV Free channel; Ceske Radiokomunikace buys CDG to control three muxes; SkyLink bought by M7 Group; CRa merges with majority shareholder MCCH; UPC promotes 300Mb/s data speeds to support bundled services; report update includes the regulator’s 2015 annual report and market reports to November 2016; telcos’ operating and financial data to Q1 2017; recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report:

UPC Czech Republic, DigiTV, CRa, CDG, O2 Czech Republic.